It doesn't come any fresher.

We generally have a reasonable crop of plums. This year I think may sound its death-knell on at least two counts, if not more.
There are signs its trunk is a bit poorly.
Yield had dropped off mightily.
There are suckers springing out of the ground, of whatever its grafted on to, "all over the shop".
I am fully aware that doing away with the tree won't stop suckering, but with the tree there it's a bit pointless attacking the suckers first. I'll try and bully them to death after tree's gone.
However as we were never great jam users it was generally wine, stewed, or donated. Since, in fact, I haven't "wined" (Whined maybe) for some time I thought I give it a whirl to follow the Rose petals.
According to the recipe I have, I'm supposed to add, apart from the obvious, Lemon zest & juice, 4 cloves and 1/4 oz root ginger, which has been in the greenhouse long enough to grow a shoot about 3' (1 mtr) tall. When I "planted" it  this section was round(ish); since then it/they have swelled to the extent that they are now pushing at each other and deforming.
Since Herself was never overly keen on cloves, there were none to hand & I didn't feel inclined to buy any for the sake of 4.